Critics say plan to cut Coast Guard personnel will harm readiness for crises

[Psephos]

Source: Washington Post

Three months before the massive BP oil spill erupted in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration proposed downsizing the Coast Guard national coordination center for oil spill responses, prompting its senior officers to warn that the agency's readiness for catastrophic events would be weakened.

That proposal is feeding a mounting debate over whether the federal government is able to regulate deep-sea oil extraction. Defense analysts and retired agency leaders question whether the Coast Guard -- which shares oversight of offshore drilling with the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service -- has the expertise and resources to keep pace with industry advances.

Accidents happen, "but what you're seeing here is the government is not properly set up to deal with this kind of issue," said Robbin Laird, a defense consultant who has worked on Coast Guard issues. "The idea that you would even think about getting rid of catastrophic environmental spill equipment or expertise at the Department of Homeland Security, are you kidding me?"

"Cutting a strike team is nuts," said Stephen Flynn, a former Coast Guard commander and now president of the Center for National Policy, a Washington think tank. "Whether it's an accident of man or an act of terrorism, it requires almost the exact same skill set to clean it up."

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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/27/AR2010052705577.html

[msongs]

1. meanwhile we spend a trillion dollars for the ongoing wars without end in other people's countries n

[babylonsister]

2. Considering bp wasn't "set up to deal with this kind of issue", this sounds

like a big fat bogus argument. WHO was or is able to deal with this catastrophic event? If the powers that be can think of some other organization, I'd like to know about it.

This is nuts. Refer back to footage of Katrina and how invaluable the CG was, and get back to me.

Edit to add: has anyone said the CG isn't viable to this or any mission lately, or is this 'journalist' trying to stoke some fires?

[FBI_Un_Sub]

3. CG is a "First Responder"

The CG is a classical "First Responder." They are like the Fire Department -- they contain the fire, rescue the people, and put out the fire. But, the CG is not SetvPro -- they don't dewater the carpets and the drywall, and they don't put up the plywood over the doors or the windows. (Note: in my home town and the cities where I have lived- the fire dept runs the paramdic service and the ambulance, and the have the "Jaws of life.")

We don't defund or privatize the FD because they ate not trained or equipped for unique industrial fires with unique hazards.

Think of the CG as analogous to the FD.

[defendandprotect]

4. k